A Tale Of Two Tieflings

Chapter 6 - The Right Ring

(... In which Valakas receives shopping advice before making poor financial decisions that he may later regret...)

The next morning, I was awoken by Elluin rushing around the room, attempting to dry his freshly washed hair in a hurry, while also dressing and gathering a collection of books and papers.

Yawning, I stretched and sat up. "Everything okay?"

"I completely forgot I was meant to meet with my arcane professor this morning for spell studies! Father will be mad if I miss it - the professor is a long-time friend of his and has kindly offered to teach me a little magic." Elluin spoke hurriedly and I stood up, grabbing him by the shoulders as he finished preparing and went to leave.

"Deep breaths, you got this. I'm sure you can explain that your sense of timing was thrown off without your father here, or you could always just blame it on Harrowford, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Elluin took a breath, calming himself and smiled, lifting up onto the balls of his feet to kiss me. "What would I do without you?"

"Well for one thing, you'd probably get to your studies on time."

He gave me a playful slap on the arm and left the room, leaving me on my own. Without him there, the house fell quiet, and still feeling kind of dozy, I crawled back under the sea of bedsheets, curled up and drifted off again.

I'm not sure what time it was, the sun seemed to be at a fairly central point through the window, but I stirred from sleep as sounds could be heard downstairs. Voices, footsteps, two sets of footsteps... Wait, was Elluin home?

Feeling a little as though I had overstayed my welcome by sleeping in while he was out, I quickly rushed to the bathroom, gave myself a tidying up, combed my hair and found my clothes on the chair from the night before. They were still clean and I didn't feel it appropriate to rummage through Elluin's closet and borrow some of his things again without his knowledge.

As I stood facing the mirror having put on my trousers, buttoning up my shirt, I heard the footsteps getting louder as they approached the room, and I froze. Those weren't Elluin's light bouncy steps, they were heavier, more assured and purposeful as they hit the floor in a steady beat.

With the upper half of the shirt still unbuttoned, I panicked, running over to the walk-in closet and quickly slipping inside, pulling the door closed and shutting me inside as I tried to quieten my breathing and my pounding heartbeat.

"Elluin, we need to talk."

I heard Rathal's voice as the sound approached the door, knocking with a sharp rap of his fist.

"Elluin, open this door immediately!"

"Sir, I am not sure the young Master has returned from his morning practice as of yet."

"Harrowford, I am sure I heard the water in his bathroom, he is most definitely in here. Elluin!"

I heard the handle turn, as the door swung open and he walked in. Oh god, I should not be here, I thought to myself. I could feel the agitation making its way to my tail and I tried to hold it still.

"As I said Sir, I'm certain your son has not returned."

"Morven, I swear to the gods, do not act as though I am hallucinating things. Somebody was in his room."

I heard him move close to the closet door, and instinctively I stepped back to move further away, however I lost my footing, and tumbled backwards, grabbing at some of the clothing around me to try and stop my fall which only managed to end up with me sat on the floor with them on top of me. Scrambling to stand up, the closet door swung open and Rathal's stern face met mine as I froze in place. His eyes narrowed, it was as though time had stopped for a moment, and I could see Harrowford just behind him giving me what appeared to be a disappointed look.